Opening Bell: 10.11.17

Uber Pushed the Limits of the Law. Now Comes the Reckoning (BBG)
Uber faces at least five criminal probes from the Justice Department—two more than previously reported. Bloomberg has learned that authorities are asking questions about whether Uber violated price-transparency laws, and officials are separately looking into the company’s role in the alleged theft of schematics and other documents outlining Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous-driving technology. Uber is also defending itself against dozens of civil suits, including one brought by Alphabet that’s scheduled to go to trial in December.

Too Much Central Bank Talk Means ‘Confusion Not Clarity’ (BBG)
The number of speeches rose nearly six-fold between 1998 to 2014 in the economies studied, yet Lustenberger and Rossi found “hardly any evidence” that the increased communication improved the accuracy of forecasts. The results indicate the situation varies from country to country, they said, adding that publishing voting records was actually detrimental to interest rate forecasts.

ADP vote is like electing the US president: Ackman (NYP)
“The decision to vote your shares here is as important as the decision to vote for the President of the United States or vote for a senator or congressman to represent you,” Ackman said on a webcast Tuesday evening. “It’s your company, you get to decide,” Ackman said.

Kevin Warsh, Very Serious Person (Tim Duy)
What is particularly discouraging is that neither Warsh nor Fisher appears to understand that during a recession, at a minimum automatic stabilizers themselves will swell the deficit. Taking aim at the deficit in such times is naive at best, deliberately spiteful at worst. My concern remains that a Fed with someone like Kevin Warsh at the helm would prove to be disastrous for Wall Street and Main Street alike when the next recession hits. Neither group needs a central banker that believes a recession is an opportunity to inflict more pain.

Central bankers face a crisis of confidence as models fail (FT)
One question posed by Richard Barwell, a senior economist at BNP Paribas, is whether they should let on about how little they know. “It’s rather like Daddy is driving the car down a hill, turning round to the family and saying, ‘I’m not sure the brakes work, but trust me anyway’,” he says.

Greybull eyeing profit from Monarch collapse (FT)
People close to the airline initially suggested the investor, which bought a majority stake in Monarch three years ago, had lost £250m when it pulled the plug on the failing UK carrier last week. But calculations by the Financial Times based on publicly available accounts and people familiar with the airline’s finances show the losses could be a fraction of that amount — and that Greybull, and the France-born brothers who run it, could even walk away with a modest profit.

Puerto Rico’s Health Care Is in Dire Condition, Three Weeks After Maria (NYT)
Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, many sick people across the island remain in mortal peril. The government’s announcements each morning about the recovery effort are often upbeat, but beyond them are hidden emergencies. Seriously ill dialysis patients across Puerto Rico have seen their treatment hours reduced by 25 percent because the centers still lack a steady supply of diesel to run their generators. Less than half of Puerto Rico’s medical employees have reported to work in the weeks since the storm.

Three Chinese women stuck at South Korea airport unable to confirm identities after plastic surgery (Shanghaiist)
On Sunday, Jian Huahua, a Chinese TV anchor shared a photo on her Weibo account of the three women sitting at a South Korea airport, passports in hands, with their post-plastic surgery faces wrapped up in bandages and extremely swollen. According to the Jian, the poor women looked so completely different from their passport photos that they were barred from taking their flight back home, detained and questioned by authorities.